Biden To Meet With NRA

Source: TPM

PEMA LEVY 1:01 PM EST, TUESDAY JANUARY 8, 2013

As part of his work on a task force to address gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden will meet with a representative from the National Rifle Association, the Hill reports. The meeting is one of a series of meetings Biden will hold this week with both gun control advocates and gun rights advocates.

Biden will meet Wednesday with gun safety organizations and shooting victims groups and on Thursday will meet with gun ownership organizations and sportsmen who use guns recreationally, according to the White House.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the organization accepted an invitation received from the White House late Friday.

"We are sending a rep to hear what they have to say," Arulanandam said.

4. There are a few places for common ground...

a) Strengthening background checks by forcing states to report mental health, drug abuse and crime data to the NICS system is a great place to start and absolutely nobody would be opposed to it (and would have helped prevent the Virginia Tech tragedy). NICS was the NRA's idea to begin with.

b) Mandatory prosecution of straw purchase offenses and a punishment if you try to buy a gun and fail a NICS check. At a minimum have local LE follow up on such an attempt

c) Some sort of requirement for proper storage in homes with those who fail the NICS check or people under 21 would also be useful and quite possibly acceptable (which may have helped with Sandy Hook, so something that could actually be effective).

d) In a survey of New York state school boards, 67 percent were in favor of trained school resource officers (which are common in many upstate schools, but were more plentiful when the state and feds were helping pick up the tab for a uniformed officer with special training for schools and running the D.A.R.E. program). This isn't arming teachers, this isn't bringing in Zimmerman wannabes to volunteer for security, and would find broad support if Bill Clinton proposed it instead of the NRA (like when Bill did in 2000)

e) Pushing for mandatory secure storage of ALL guns would be a stretch (and difficult to enforce without a complaint), but not exactly insurmountable.

On the fringe, you might even be able to land a high-cap magazine ban with the NRA's support if you try really, REALLY hard (like give them the choice of registering guns or banning high-cap mags, they'll chose the mag ban). Paying to buy half a billion magazines would be tough, though, when we can't get Congress to help with storm relief, but could be worth it.

The NRA's just grandstanding after Sandy Hook, like most of the talking heads. There is room for compromise between no guns (unconstitutional) and everyone owning artillery (which even Scalia said can be scaled back).

Then again, if we cut back on the war on drugs and left the dude with pot in his attic alone, we'd see an overnight drop in violent crime in this country.

5. Here in New Zealand

Where handguns and all military style rifles are banned - it is the law that legal firearms be kept in secure storage. Proof of this (e.g. a receipt from a dealer for a gun safe) is required to get a gun license. The bolt (or firing mechanism) must be removed and stored, along with ammunition, in a different place to the firearm.

The system is administered by the police here and license holders, as a condition, must be prepared for random spot checks on the storage systems. Breaking the rules, mental health issues and criminal convictions mean automatic loss (or non-issue) of license(s).

These laws are much in line with the rest of the Western world.... USA not so much.